The latest Age UK campaigns calendar is now available! It contains details on the influencing work Age UK will be focusing on from October to December 2022 – including how you can get involved.
The latest Age UK campaigns calendar is now available below! Covering national influencing activity by Age UK and upcoming awareness campaigns across October to December, this edition includes details of our upcoming campaigning work over the coming months.
We’ve highlighted below some of the most important events in the calendar that will be coming up over the next few weeks, including some details on the ways you can get involved if you have time:
Malnutrition Awareness Week – 10th to 16th October
Please share the resources made available on the website and tweet the hashtag – #UKMAW2022
Black History Month – throughout October
Please look out for and share the three Discover pieces set to go live on our website throughout October.
Carers Leave Private Members Bill – Second reading: 21st October
The bill will enshrine in employment law the Government’s pledge to provide five days of unpaid carers leave for all unpaid carers.
If you have time, please write to your MPs to ask and ask them to support the bill.
Debt and mid-term fiscal plan – 31st October
This has now been brought forward to the 31st October (originally proposed for 23rd November)
If you have time, please write to your MPs to make clear the need for: benefits to be uprated in line with inflation, targeted funding for NHS and social care, and extended support for energy bills for older and vulnerable people.
Befriending Week – 1st to 7th November
See if you can put on thank you events for befrienders in your local area.
Please share resources using the Befriending Networks resource pack and their website and post during the week on socials.
Get in touch!
If you have any questions about our upcoming campaigning and influencing, or if you have any suggestions for future editions of the campaigns calendar, please get in touch with Miles Bassett: miles.bassett@ageuk.org.uk.
The latest Age UK campaigns calendar is now available! It contains details on the influencing work Age UK will be focusing on in the third quarter of 2022 – including how you can get involved.
The latest Age UK campaigns calendar is now available below! Covering national influencing activity by Age UK and upcoming awareness campaigns across July – September, this edition includes details of our upcoming work on social care reforms, the cost of living, and some key legislation and policy changes coming from the Government.
Please note: much of this iteration of the Campaigns Calendar was written before the Prime Minister resigned and the contest for the new leadership of the Conservative party began. As such, these timings are subject to change. Please keep an eye on the daily Signpost emails for updates on our Campaigns and Influencing activity. If you would like to sign up for Signpost emails please use this form.
If you have any questions about our upcoming campaigning and influencing, or if you have any suggestions for future editions of the campaigns calendar, please get in touch with Luke Pilot: luke.pilot@ageuk.org.uk.
The Calendar is available to view and download below. We’ll also host in on our Campaigns Hub here.
Following on from Loneliness Awareness Week, here are some resources to help local Age UKs to continue tackling loneliness all year round!
Thank you to everyone who helped to make Loneliness Awareness Week a success! Following on from last week, there are some fantastic resources now available to support your regular work. Find out full details below.
The resources available cover a whole range of topics, including:
Supporting low-income households to overcome loneliness
Social prescribing to tackle loneliness
Loneliness in the workplace
Available Resources
1. Webinar – Tackling Loneliness at its Roots
If you missed our webinar, Tackling Loneliness at its Roots: how can we best support low-income households to overcome social isolation?, you can watch it here.
Thanks again to Jenny Paton from Age UK Wirral for an excellent presentation on their work tackling loneliness in conjunction with their local hospital trust, this is definitely worth a watch.
We worked with other organisations tackling loneliness through social prescribing to pool resources, and have collated some really helpful Guidance and Top Tips and Research and Evidence material.
3. Workshop – Loneliness in the Workplace
If you missed the workshop on loneliness in the workplace, take this opportunity to look at some of the material presented and think about what you can do to support staff and colleagues who may be experiencing loneliness.
4. Loneliness Minister’s Visit to Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire
And if you haven’t already, read more here about the Loneliness Minister’s visit to walking football in his constituency at Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire last Friday.
A huge thank you to everyone who worked to make the visit such a success.
With Carers Week and Loneliness Awareness Week both falling in June, here’s a roundup of Age UK’s influencing work across both weeks.
It’s been a busy month for the whole Age UK Network, with both Carers Week and Loneliness Awareness Week following each other during June! As you know, both weeks are major opportunities to raise awareness of these issues and to highlight the important work that is being done, and more that could be done, to tackle them. Read on to learn about some of the central influencing opportunities we engaged in over these two weeks:
Carers Week is delivered by Carers UK alongside Age UK and other charity partners as a celebration of the huge contributions of unpaid carers. This year, the campaign also focused on highlighting the impact of the pandemic on unpaid carers and calling on the Government to create and fund a Recovery & Respite plan.
Age UK’s role is to highlight the role of older carers and ensure the support they need is recognised. As well as arranging for two campaigners to speak with the Minister for Care and the Shadow Minister for Care during online calls, we also attended the Carers Week Parliamentary drop-in for MPs on 8th June.
Norman Philips, who cares for his wife, and Rasila Mehta, who cares for her sister, joined Age UK at the event and spoke to over 21 MPs and Peers about their experiences and the support they need to meet the demands of their roles as older carers. Alongside the more than 6000 campaigners who wrote to their MPs, Norman and Rasila demonstrated just how reliant the Health and Care sectors are on unpaid carers and made a very clear case for the need for immediate Government support.
You can read more about Carers Week and the Recovery & Respite plan here.
Norman Philips, Age UK’s Senior External Affairs Manager Eorann Lean, and Rasila Mehta
Loneliness Awareness Week – Tackling Loneliness with the Minister
We started the week with a webinar, chaired by Darren Henry MP, on supporting those on low incomes to overcome loneliness. We had a fantastic presentation from Jenny Paton at Age UK Wirral on their work with their local hospital trust.
To mark the end of Loneliness Awareness Week, Nigel Huddleston, the Minister responsible for tackling the loneliness agenda, joined a game of walking football in his constituency at Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire last Friday.
He got to see first-hand an example of the amazing work the Age UK Network does to tackle loneliness across the country. Walking football is a great way for players to socialise, while staying active at the same time.
The team spoke with the Minister about why playing means so much to them. Richard told him:
“I’ve made new friends and gotten to know more people. We all stop for a coffee after and have a chat. For those who are getting on or may have lost a partner, it helps with socialising. If someone doesn’t turn up for a few weeks, we reach out on our WhatsApp group.”
Richard, a regular walking football player
The Minister was happy to get stuck in and have a kick about with the team. It’s safe to say he thoroughly enjoyed himself and was very impressed with Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire, saying later:
“it was great to see their inspiring work helping older people make new friends while having fun and getting exercise.”
Nigel Huddleston, Minister for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society
You can read more on the Age UK Discover blog and see some lovely clips of the visit on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s twitter feed below:
The programme helps older people play sport for longer, keeping them active and giving opportunities to build relationships@FA | @SportEngland | @ageuk
We are deeply thankful to all our campaigners and all the local Age UKs who support unpaid carers and deliver services essential to tackling loneliness in older people. This work is essential for supporting the older people who need us most. Age UK will of course continue campaigning for them, to make sure they get the support they need.
If you have any questions about our campaigning work, please get in touch – luke.pilot@ageuk.org.uk.
There are lots of ways to get involved with this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week! Find out more below, including some upcoming events!
This week is Loneliness Awareness Week, a great chance to connect with others working in the sector to tackle loneliness and promote your services. Here’s a reminder of some of the ways you can get involved, including: template social media wording to help spread the word; details of our webinar tomorrow; and Thursday’s Tackling Loneliness Hub workshop on addressing loneliness in the workplace.
If you have 5 minutes:
You can spread the word on your social media channels, using these template social media posts and graphics to raise awareness of loneliness, recruit new volunteers and promote your services.
Join us at our webinar, Tackling Loneliness at its Roots: how can we best support low-income households to overcome social isolation?
It will be hosted by Age UK on behalf of the DCMS Tackling Loneliness Champions. The panel will be discussing long-term, sustainable solutions to support those on low incomes to overcome loneliness, and will shine a spotlight on several innovative schemes.
Date: Tuesday 14th June, 11am-12pm
Chair: Darren Henry MP, Vice-chair of the APPG for Tackling Loneliness and Connected Communities
Attend the Tackling Loneliness Hub workshop on addressing loneliness in the workplace. Please register here.
Date: Thursday 16th June, 2-3.30pm
This workshop will be a chance to hear examples of what works and understand how loneliness can affect colleagues and organisations. By the end of the workshop, we’ll have developed initial steps for addressing loneliness within our own organisations, with a particular focus on employee life cycles.
The workshop will cover:
1. Overview of Employers and Loneliness Guide
2. In focus: research on loneliness in the workplace
3. Case study and discussion: Re-engage approach to addressing loneliness in the workplace
4. Addressing loneliness throughout the employee lifecycle and life stages.
If you have any questions or would like any more information about Loneliness Awareness Week, please email Rhianon.Steeds@ageuk.org.uk.
There are lots of ways to get involved with this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week! Find out more below, including some upcoming events!
There are lots of exciting activities going on and ways for you to get involved in this year’s Loneliness Awareness Week! It’s a great chance to connect with others working in the sector to tackle loneliness and promote your services. Read on for some template social media wording to help spread the word, as well as details of our upcoming webinar and the Tackling Loneliness Hub workshop on addressing loneliness in the workplace.
Age UK’s External Affairs Team has compiled a campaigns calendar with details on influencing work Age UK will be focusing on in the second quarter of 2022 – including how local partners can get involved.
The second quarterly campaigns calendar from the Age UK External Affairs team is now available below! Covering the months from April to June, the calendar includes details on key Age UK campaigns, including the cost of living campaign ‘It Doesn’t Add Up’ which follows on from the recent Cost of Cold campaign.
The calendar also includes details on the multiple awareness days and weeks coming up over the summer, including Carers Week and Loneliness Awareness Week. Please keep an eye out for how Age UK will be marking these occasions, including providing resources to use at your local Age UK.
As ever, we deeply appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to campaign alongside you!
We hope this will be a helpful tool for you when planning your activities over the next few months. If you have any feedback or queries, or would like to discuss any of these campaigns or support influencing locally, please get in touch with Luke Pilot via luke.pilot@ageuk.org.uk.
The Calendar is available to view and download below:
An update on Loneliness Awareness Week, including details of a lunchtime webinar and an upcoming survey on the most effective services for tackling loneliness.
This week is Loneliness Awareness Week. We’d love you to join us at a lunchtime webinar we’re organising with the British Red Cross on Thursday 17th June from 1:30-2:30. It will be chaired by the Minister for Loneliness, Baroness Barran, and will shine a spotlight on several innovative schemesworking to tackle loneliness in local communities. Read more and register here.
As part of our activity for Loneliness Awareness week, we’re also thinking about which of our services are most effective when it comes to tackling loneliness – from a services perspective and for when we’re talking to MPs and the Government about how best to tackle loneliness. With this in mind, the Services division and the Influencing division will be sending you a joint survey to find out about your experiences, so please do look out for it in July.
Find out how to book your place at the upcoming webinar – Tackling Loneliness Locally: Community Champions.
As part of Loneliness Awareness Week, we’d love you to join us at a lunchtime webinar we are organising with the British Red Cross on Thursday 17th June from 1:30-2:30. It will be chaired by the Minister for Loneliness, Baroness Barran, and will shine a spotlight on several innovative schemesworking to tackle loneliness in local communities. Speakers include Amy Whyte, Head of Charitable Services, at Age UK Northumberland, who will present on supporting rural communities. Read more and register here.
